DRUNK KIDS NEED CARE

MANITOBA teens picked up for being drunk or stoned are taken to jail
for the night, and have been for years despite the evident abuses of
their rights in the practice. Being intoxicated is not a crime, but
police can take into custody inebriated adults and youths in need of care.

There is a "drunk tank" for adults, but there is no such place for
young people. That needs to change.

The provincial government can account for 144 intoxicated young
people who were housed last year at the Manitoba Youth Centre. There
were more than that picked up by police. The youth centre has two
beds for kids who are drunk or stoned and in need of overnight
supervision when parents are unavailable or unable to watch them. If
those two beds are in use, police hold the teenager at their
stations. Both facilities are inappropriate for someone who has not
broken the law, and the police station is ill-suited for a youth who
may be high or coming down from drugs and may need emergency health
intervention. There is no good monitoring of all the youth detained
for intoxication, and therefore no good accountability. Young people
have their rights truncated in many ways for a number of reasons, but
it must be done carefully and justifiably.

Taking kids to jail is an easy way out. If there is a law permitting
the detention of young drunk or stoned people, there must be adequate
accommodation for them. It is a provincial law, it is a provincial
responsibility but the provincial government has for years bounced
this one among different departments and now it rests with a cabinet
committee made up of representatives of different departments. The
only public advocate for the youth has been the ombudsman, but the
issue was dropped from her annual reports in recent years. The
province has sought suggestions from community organizations serving
young people and all have backed away from taking on the
responsibility of providing them emergency shelter.

There are community organizations that care for drunk or stoned
adults. Mixing teenagers with adults is asking for trouble, but those
groups serving adults have the experience and staff capable of
handling a delicate job. Their facilities may not be geared to taking
in teens, but the province is in no position to operate year-round a
separate building for a couple hundred kids needing care for one night.

Parents who lobbied the province for a place to hold and treat their
drug-addicted kids against their will saw a stabilization unit open
this year. Intoxicated youth who need a safe place for a night don't
have that political clout. The opening of the stabilization unit
indicates that when there is the political will, there's a way. The
same commitment needs to work for the most vulnerable of the young --
those who have no one to speak for them.